Investors lining up to buy the Rays, as stadium deal deadline looms

With a stadium deal running out of time in St. Petersburg, investors are reportedly interested in purchasing the Tampa Bay Rays from principal owner Stu Sternberg.

Tampa businessman Joe Molloy, who is a former minority owner of the New York Yankees, is heading a group of prospective Tampa-based investors seeking to buy the Rays. They would keep the team in St. Pete under the existing stadium deal, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Speaking to the Times, Molloy said he had “assembled an incredible team that shares our vision,” but declined to say who the members of that group are because they had signed nondisclosure agreements.

The news comes as Sternberg faces a March 31 deadline to decide whether to move forward with the $600 million stadium deal with the city of St. Pete and Pinellas County.

The deal stalled and came under question following Hurricane Milton, whose winds ripped the roof from Tropicana Field and forced the team to find an alternative location to play its 2025 season. The decision to play in Tampa prompted pushback from Pinellas County Commissioners, leading to a hitch in the stadium deal that had been approved in July.

While Sternberg hasn’t said whether he’s planning to sell, The Athletic reported over the weekend that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and other team owners were pressuring him to do so.

The Athletic also reported that sources said a member of the prominent Tampa DeBartolo family was part of Molloy’s investor group. Edward DeBartolo Jr. is a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers and, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, is the member considering a purchase.

The Athletic reported that Dan Doyle Jr. is also weighing a purchase, though is part of a separate investor group. Doyle Jr., CEO of Tampa-based DEX Imaging, had previously attempted to buy the team, but pulled out of the $1.85 billion deal in 2023, according to Forbes.

Sources reportedly told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that there is not yet a firm deal on the table.

The possible purchase by Molloy and his group would keep the team in its current St. Pete home as part of the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment, and the $600 million that the county and city have pledged for a new stadium is likely a much better deal than the team would get in neighboring Tampa, where a funding agreement has for years been elusive. Most recently, Hillsborough County Commissioner Joshua Wostal has said he would vote against public funding for a stadium, according to the Business Journal.

This is the latest in what has become a dramatic saga in what had been a done deal.

The Pinellas County Commission approved its version of the stadium deal last year. It called for $312.5 million in bonds from the county’s tourism development tax, which visitors pay on hotel and other lodging stays. The Commission was set to approve the bonds just before Thanksgiving, but delayed the vote until Dec. 17. After some hesitation, the board ultimately approved the bonds at the Dec. 17 meeting.

That vote came less than two weeks after St. Pete City Council revived what was thought to be a dead deal after the bond vote delays. Like the County Commission, the City Council had also delayed its bond vote. Its portion of the deal includes $287.5 million for the stadium and $142 million for the Gas Plant District.

Because both the city and county have approved the stadium deal, it’s on the Rays to back out. If they back out, the city and county would retain development rights at the current Trop site. Had the city or county been the ones to kill the deal, the Rays would have retained development rights, a hitch that likely led both boards to finally approve bonds.

Now, it seems, there’s another chapter of this saga left to unfold. Stay tuned … again.